PRO(G)NATURA: technologie and outdoor education as a complement to improve the child learning process

According to the literature, the Scratch software, when used in an educational context, can enhance learning in areas as mathematics, science, arts, languages and music. Also education in nature environment has been focus of several studies, which present evidence of its potentiality to the development of curriculum learning, health and well-being. The proposed work aims to present the preliminary results of the impact of an educational program that combines Scratch programming environment and nature environment, as a complement to the classroom context learning. It is an educational program for children attending the 1st Cycle of Basic Education (CEB), called PRO(G)NATURA (PGN), which applies a methodology, centred on students' interests and motivations, through the articulation between education in the nature and Scratch, developed within the scope of the curriculum flexibility recommended for the 1st year of the 1st CEB in Portugal. The presented study refers to the participation of 56 students in PGN in the academic year 2018/2019. The study aims to understand the potential of the educational program for the development of children's learning. To this, at the end of the program, the children' parents/guardians had access to a questionnaire. A preliminary data reading shows that, according to the 33 carers answering the questionnaire, PGN had a positive impact on the development and learning of the participants. They was also perceived changes at children' skills while participating in the program.